Good Monday morning -----

Hope you had a fabulous weekend.  It's been hot, hot, hot here and I was able to go kayaking on Whiskeytown Lake Saturday night; a wonderful evening paddle under a full moon.  Heaven! But on to today's post.

 After getting a bit dehydrated and feeling sick the day after my little adventure to Glass Mountain with my son and grand kids a couple of weeks ago, I remembered a homemade replacement for Pedialyte/Gatorade that I wanted to share with you. I volunteered years ago at a wildlife rehab organization and we used this recipe for stressed out, dehydrated fawns and such that were brought in for fostering. I have also given this to my children when they were sick and getting dehydrated due to diarrhea and vomiting.  It's simple to make, cost-effective, and works! 

2 quarts water

2 T sugar
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt substitute (made with potassium chloride)
1/2 t salt

Mix well and store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.  You can drink as is, or add some Kool-Aid mix or maybe some Crystal Light for better flavor. 

Thanks for stopping by Two Dogs.  I leave you with a picture of my Jacob's ladder that is blooming so beautifully.  Have a great week!

Heat Wave -------------------------

It's hot everywhere!  Charlie, Tooners, and I have been trying all manner of ways to stay cool, but once it gets to the point of not cooling down at night it becomes pretty hard to get any relief.  We do not have air conditioning in the house, not even a swamp cooler, so we have had to come up with some creative ways to deal.  For the dogs I rub them down with a wet wash cloth or put them in the bathtub and use some moderately cool water to get them good and wet, let them do a good shake (with the shower curtain CLOSED!! LOL!) and they remain reasonably comfortable for awhile. Repeat as necessary. For myself, I splash my face with cold water, drape a cold, wet washcloth around the back of my neck, and drink a lot of water.  I had a few issues with dehydration recently and have learned my lesson on that one. The house is barely cooler than outside and keeping lots of fans going once all the windows are closed is helpful.  I have even resorted to placing a gallon size frozen bottle of water in front of the fan.  It provides a little relief if you stand right in front of it.  Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do.   Sorry I don't have any thrifty tips or tricks for you this week, but I will be working on that for next time.  Stay cool out there!

Some pictures.........

I am posting a bit early on Two Dogs since this weekend may be a little hectic. Today I thought I would show you a few pictures.  The first one is Charlie and his new summer hair cut.  He was pretty matted and his hair was so long; part of this being because knowing it would be an ordeal for him I put it off longer than I should have because I wanted to make sure that he had bonded with me before throwing something else at him that would be difficult for him to deal with.  If you are a regular reader of Two Dogs you know his story.  If not you can read it HERE.  I felt I needed to give it extra time and then when I finally made the call to the groomer she couldn't get him in for three weeks. He didn't get the cute little wire hair trim that is the norm for this breed.  Maybe next time.  This go 'round was simply to show him he would be returning back home with me, that the groomer would not hurt him, and that he would be a lot more comfortable.  It was an ordeal for him and for the groomer, but the dirty deed is done and he is all the more comfortable for it, although he was actually embarrassed for a few days afterwards.  Me?  I am just relieved that it is over because I actually thought he might not make it through it all.  Here he is.  This is not the best picture of him, but it was the best I could do.  I only got this picture because I think he was still rummy from the medication I gave him to make his beauty parlor experience a little less traumatic.

The other pictures I wanted to share with you are some of an outing we went on last Sunday.  My son called and wanted to know if I would like to go to Glass Mountain and Medicine Lake with him and the kids and I jumped at the chance to spend some time with them.  We had a ball exploring the moon-scape that is Glass Mountain.  Curious about how it got its name?  Glass Mountain is an area devastated by volcanic eruption in eons past and the by-product of the eruption in this particular area is a large area of obsidian.  Much of it is covered in a dull coating of grey lava rock, but there are areas where the obsidian is in plain view.  Zach and Emma had a glorious time exploring.  Here's a few pictures of our adventure:                                                    

                                

After exploring Glass Mountain we drove over to Medicine Lake and had a picnic lunch and the kids played in the cool water.  Joe Cool aka Zach and Emma were delighted to find some frogs that were OK with being picked up and scrutinized.  We all had a fabulous time and it was such fun to spend the whole day with them.  Thanks for visiting Two Dogs and for letting me share!                                                                                          

Saline spray

Hey! Hey! Hey!  How is your day going?  Thanks for stopping by!  My little tidbit for today is home made saline spray.  You know, those pricey little bottles of salt water you buy to irrigate your nose with?  I don't know about you, but I refuse to pay $15 for salt water.  Yes, $15 is the price of one of the well-known brands of saline spray used to irrigate one's nose.  There are some cheaper ones, yes, but whatever they are charging it is too much.  We are talking nothing more than salt and water here.  Nope, not gonna pay it.  I found  an awesome alernative that I want to share with you today.  You will need a small mister bottle.  I bought a bottle of cold remedy nasal spray that had a cap I could remove (not all of them do) and when I was finished with the product I kept the bottle and cleaned it well. These are really the best ones to use (the ones that are meant for nasal applications) because the solution actually comes out in a mist. The spray pattern you get from some of the small generic spray bottles that you can purchase is just too coarse for me. Anywho, into this cleaned bottle I added my just-as-good-as-store-bought saline spray for virtually no cost.  I mean, how much can 1/4 teaspoon of salt cost you?  This makes way more than you can get into your little spray bottle, but to break it down into a half-ounce or so is just too much trouble and would be silly to even attempt.  Remember, we are talking nothing more than salt and water so I don't worry about it.

Boil some water and let it cool. Use this cooled water in the following recipe.

Into a clean jar with a lid put:

4 ounces of water
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Shake vigorously and pour into your clean little nasal sprayer.  That's it.  Nasal spray for no cost.  You are going to have a LOT left after you fill your mister.  Either save the leftover in your fridge or heck, just gargle with it and make more when you need it.  I use quite a bit of this stuff during allergy season so I do keep the extra around for a couple of weeks, but it is so easy to make you don't really have to.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a fabulous week!